PRI's The World: 12/19/2013

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Senegal is rolling out a national health program that uses on volunteer workers. As part of our Tracking Charity series, we look at the ethics of relying on free labor. Plus, an advocate for domestic workers weighs in on the arrest of an Indian diplomat accused of visa fraud and underpaying a maid she brought into the country. And, are all those plastic gift cards we give a burden on the environment?

The case of an Indian diplomat accused of mistreating her housekeeper may not be as rare as you might expect. US officials have a program to educate domestic workers from abroad on their rights, to prevent such abuse.

Until last year, Honey al-Sayed was the host of a drive-time radio program with a strong following of middle-class Syrians in Damascus. But when the government of Bashar al-Assad began to doubt her loyalty, she fled Syria to create her own radio station.

Associated Press photographer Jerome Delay chose to stay in the Central African Republic when many of his peers went to South Africa to cover the death of Nelson Mandela. He felt he needed to show the world what was going on in the chaotic African nation.

In a landmark ruling last year, a Slovakian court found a school district was discriminating against the city's Roma population by segregating Roma kids in separate classes. But not all Roma are excited by the prospect of integrating their children.

The European Space Agency's Gaia mission is headed into space. The $1 billion space observatory blasted off from French Guiana Thursday morning on a mission to create a very detailed, 3-D map of the Milky Way. No special glasses required.